Bonnie And Anzac

Bonnie Anzac

New Member
Well the children have all left home so we got two wonderful nutcase Borders Collies, cant keep him out of the swimming pool and she has eaten half of the outdoor setting not to mention the holes in the back yard and those tasty flowers on the roses mmmm yum.
 

Dogster

Honored Member
Welcome to DTA!!!! Do you tech your beautiful border collies tricks??? Do you use a clicker??? I am sure that you will find this site very helpful. If you have any questions, just ask!!!!!:D
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
lol! sorry, i shouldn't laff, but i did, it sounds soooooo border-collie-ish!! :ROFLMAO: That breed can not tolerate boredom as well as some breeds can. If YOU don't give them some way to burn off BOTH their mental energy (tricks, cues, agility, finding things, games, etc)
as well as their physical energy (running off leash, agility, long long walks at least twice a day, swimming, etc)
well, then they WILL find their own activities....mmmHmm.

but, HAVE HOPE, you CAN get your nutty lil border collies to be well behaved doggies, DO STICK AROUND HERE!!

Like Dogster said, have you tried teaching them tricks? *My* border collie finds that immensely satisfying, and tends to be very very well behaved rest of the day, my dog thinks when he does tricks that "he had a job"....... he had "something to DO" ...........some way to use his mind.

Teaching tricks doesn't even take that long, even a 2 lessons a day, at about 5 or 10 minutes each lesson, will help your dogs feel they "did something". It also helps your dogs learn to follow YOUR cues, to listen to YOU.

My dog also goes nutz if he is NOT kept busy enough, oh yeah, my dog WILL invent his OWN ways to stay occupied :rolleyes: if i don't assign him stuff to do instead.
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
You can also start to teach the cue "Leave It"

After your dog fully, solidly understands what "Leave It" means, THEN, you take dog over to the roses and tell him "Leave It".

this is NOT how i taught i "leave it"
but this will do:

 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
sometimes digging holes can be a sign the dog is bored, and needs more exercise.


My dog has one spot he digs, to sit in the cooler earth below the surface dirt.

We let him have his one spot. It is behind a giant hosta plant, in the shade, and you can't really even see this dog-size hole, since the hosta is so so big. So this was a good compromise for us and our dog. Plus, he looks soooooo cute peeking at us from behind the hostas.

Buddy has had that same hide-y hole now for years, and he maintains it now and then. Maybe you all can decide a spot for your dog to have his one spot to dig around??? it worked for us anyway. Everyone is happy, we don't mind that one spot way over in the shade,
and Buddy gets his one (1) digging area.
 

Evie

Experienced Member
Welcome! :)

Border Collies are sOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooOOOo much fun!

Is Bonnie short coated? Her coat looks a lot like what my Evie's is, however I'm not sure exactly how Evie will end up as her mum was short coated and her dad long coated.

Anyway, they're both gorgeous. Welcome to the forum :)
 

Ripleygirl

Experienced Member
Well the children have all left home so we got two wonderful nutcase Borders Collies, cant keep him out of the swimming pool and she has eaten half of the outdoor setting not to mention the holes in the back yard and those tasty flowers on the roses mmmm yum.
sometimes digging holes can be a sign the dog is bored, and needs more exercise.


My dog has one spot he digs, to sit in the cooler earth below the surface dirt.

We let him have his one spot. It is behind a giant hosta plant, in the shade, and you can't really even see this dog-size hole, since the hosta is so so big. So this was a good compromise for us and our dog. Plus, he looks soooooo cute peeking at us from behind the hostas.

Buddy has had that same hide-y hole now for years, and he maintains it now and then. Maybe you all can decide a spot for your dog to have his one spot to dig around??? it worked for us anyway. Everyone is happy, we don't mind that one spot way over in the shade,
and Buddy gets his one (1) digging area.
With the digging thing - we had a border collie that was really into digging (bearing in mind she was a working dog and loved her work and got the exercise (mental & physical) she needed through her work), the digging was not simply destructive with her... she needed the outlay of digging when she wasn't working, partly to lie in it and stay cool (as tigerlily said) and partly just a realise after work - she would dig all our veggie patch and plants etc. We made her a sandpit and taught her this is where she would dig by laying tasty things to find in it as well as puzzles to work out that we had buried in it. She learnt that this was the only place to dig and release because she was rewarded for digging in the sandpit and did not get rewarded for digging anywhere else... this took time but was worth it as she was a dog that was not going to be 'cured' from digging just through more exercise or training - she just needed to have that outlay and the sandpit gave her that without any destruction to our garden,
 

tigerlily46514

Honored Member
Ripleygirl, that is great story, and a brilliant solution you came up with, and great tips on HOW to help your dog find his very own digging spot! :D YAY!! KUDOS!!


when my dog is in SAND, he comes in covered in with sand. He has sand all over him, mushed into his paws, and all over his sides, even after a shake off, he has sand down in his skin here and there, and his legs are full of sand.

but, oddly, when he is in his dirt hole, he walks out of it pretty clean. Odd. Now, sometimes, if he has recently maintained the hole, but re-digging it a bit, well, then his paws are dirty, but, his sides are still clean.
 

Ripleygirl

Experienced Member
Ripleygirl, that is great story, and a brilliant solution you came up with, and great tips on HOW to help your dog find his very own digging spot! :D YAY!! KUDOS!!


when my dog is in SAND, he comes in covered in with sand. He has sand all over him, mushed into his paws, and all over his sides, even after a shake off, he has sand down in his skin here and there, and his legs are full of sand.

but, oddly, when he is in his dirt hole, he walks out of it pretty clean. Odd. Now, sometimes, if he has recently maintained the hole, but re-digging it a bit, well, then his paws are dirty, but, his sides are still clean.
Sand does stick more compared to soil...:confused: but it did save our garden at the time from a dog that didn't want to be destructive but did seem to need to dig... You just have to clean the floors a bit more if the dog then comes into the house!! The only other thing I've noticed with some dogs that dig, not through destructiveness but because they have a need to dig is the 'root smell' thing. Some dogs go mad for the smell of roots of plants that are buried. Dogs with this, need to be given an outlay for this. These dogs only dig when there is the smell of a fresh root just under the ground and they go mad for this ( like a cat smelling catnip for the first time). In my experience these dogs seem to need to have an outlay for this type of smell - taking the sandpit example, burying root veg in it (such as little slips of swede, carrot or parsnip) could save a vegitable patch from being destroyed.
 
Top